You are on page 1of 4

JournalofInformationTechnologyandApplicationinEducationVol.2Iss.4,Dec.2013www.jitae.

org
doi:10.14355/jitae.2013.0204.10

ITMediatedDevelopmentofSustainable
AgricultureSystems
TowardaDataDrivenCitizenScience
MasatoshiFunabashi*1
SonyComputerScienceLaboratories,inc.
Takanawamusebldg.3F,31413,HigashiGotanda,Shinagawaku,Tokyo,1410022,Japan
*1

masa_funabashi@csl.sony.co.jp

Abstract
Sustainable farming is facing an informatization challenge
on the complexity of ecosystem dynamics. We introduced
collective pervasive learning using webbased database on
biodiversity and farming knowledge in polyculture system.
Thesharingofknowledgeanddataisshowntobeeffective
bothinunderstandingthebehaviourofecosystemsandthe
management of vegetation portfolio in relation to local
environment.
Keywords
Sustainable Agriculture; Pervasive Learning; ComputerAided
Assessment;EnvironmentalManagementSystems

Introduction
Agricultureisoneofthecentralissuesinsustainability
of both human society and planetary environment
[Barnosky 2012]. Several international organizations
areraisingalertinscientificreportstopreventfurther
biodiversity loss and convert our socioecological
systems to a sustainable design (i.e., [IAASTD 2009]
[MEAB2005]).Theargumentsmutualyemphasizethe
importance of small holder farmers whose
contributiontolocaleconomy,nutritiondiversity,and
environmental protection is underexploited (i.e.,
[HLPE2013]).
IT based enhancement of small scale agriculture is
recently emerging, and further develppoment is
needed especially for the food security in developing
countries such as India and China, with a large
population of smallfarm holders as substantial
suppliers[Balga2013][Zhang2013].
Small farms usually practice with locally diversified
methods, depending on the ecological, geographical
and social contexts.The optimization of conventional
largescalefarmingsuchasprecisionagricultureisnot
necessary enough to treat such diversity of both
environment and method (i.e. Traditional small
practices do not usually involve machinery). Rather,

the sharing of experience, farming options, ecological


database,connectiontomarketarerequiredforbetter
managementonsite.
For that purpose, the adaptation of elearning, web
basedlearning,computerbasedassessment,etc,should
bemoreeffectivelyintegratedtosupportthemanagement
andeducationsurroundinglocalagriculture.
Web-Based Learning and Enhancement of
Sustainable Agriculture
NeedofPervasiveLearninginSustainableAgriculture
Small scale farming methods are usually owned by
localsocialnetwork,andtheexchangeofinformation
is largely limited in oral communication and onthe
jobtransmission.Thefarmingknowledgeandunderlying
logiccomefromthepractitionersexperience,andare
sometimes unclear of scientific evidence. A persons
experience is too constrained by time and location
compared to the complexity of ecosystems. This is a
societal burden for the sane development of locally
adaptive farming methods, including the adaptation
roclimatechange.
IT based education and sharing of information can
augmenthumanknowledge,possiblytocatchupwith
the ecosystems dynamics. For that purpose, an
integrateddesignofpervasivelearningisnecessaryto
maximally profit from all aspects of farming
experience as information source. Single technology
such as computeraided assessment and virtual e
learning is not sufficient to support the entirety of
farming practice at the speed of need. Rather, the
interface to connect between IT and necessities in
farming should be integratively designed. The
pervasive learning for smallscale agriculture should
include openaccess database with various kinds of
media, webbased connection such as weblog and
social network service, application software and
tutorials for learningandsharing,actual exchangeon

179

www.jitae.orgJournalofInformationTechnologyandApplicationinEducationVol.2Iss.4,Dec.2013

farmingsite,andsoon.

biodiversityandsharingofknowledge,listsofspecies
taxonomy classification (32,567 plant species and
30,277 insect species from opensource database),
associationstrategyofplants,productivityresults,etc.

Synecoculture Experiment
SynecocultureFarmingMethod

The database wasaugmented by linking related


taxonomicalandecologicalinformationonSQLserver
(FIG.3). This enables users to search related
information on the recorded species and practice, as
wellasidentifyingspecieswithoutaprioriknowledge
ontaxonomicalclassification.Thisdesignisimportant
to overcome the tradeoff between the accessibility
and complexity of ecological information, as most
biodiversity database is based solely on taxonomical
classification and cannot be used in real time
management of farming.The dual structure between
taxonomy and media files realize search response
speedscalableenoughtotheaugmentationofdata.

Weappliedthemethodologyofpervasivelearningfor
the management of Synecoculture method in Japan.
Synecoculture is a smallscale polyculture system,
producing a wide variety of vegetables, herbs, fruits,
etc [Funabashi 2011]. Its challenge is tointelligently
manage biodiversity of the field to profit from a
variety of ecosystems function such as productivity,
resilience, product quality, etc. Conventional
methodology that produces environmental load is
avoided, such as tillage, fertilizer, chemicals and
machinery. Fig.1 and 2 show the experiment site of
Synecoculture. It is based on a dense polyculture of
edible plants, each species competing with others to
form their niche in a state of ecological optimum. In
such practice, the sharing of knowledge on
biodiversity and farming strategy such as vegetation
portfoliobecomeessentialforthemanagement.

Left:Photoofthefield.Right:Schematicsegmentationofproductive
surface(greens)andfruittrees(oranges)
FIG.1OVERVIEWOFSYNECOCULTUREFIELD

Left:Photoof4 productivesurface.Right:Schematic
segmentationofdifferentkindsofvegetables(13species).

Top:Searchsequenceofspeciesnamefromrelatedtaxonomyand
metadata.Usercanfindspeciesnamefromotherinformation.
Bottom:Autofillingofrelatedtaxonomicalinformationandmeta
data.Registeredspeciesisautomaticallyrelatedwithtaxonomyand
metadataspecifictospecies.

FIG.2CLOSEVIEWOFSYNECOCULTUREFIELD

The experiment was conducted principally in three


differentfarmsinJapan,inTokyo,KanagawaandMie
prefecture. Other individualbased participants also
enrichedthedatabaseandmanagementprocedure.

FIG.3DATABASESTRUCTUREFORTHESUPPORTOF
PERVASIVELEARNINGINSYNECOCULTUE

ComputerAidedAssessmentandManagement

DatabaseStructure

We have been developing the practice of


Synecocultureforthreeyearsbygraduallyintroducing
the database system. Social network service and
weblogs also supported distant communication and

For the management of Synecoculture, we shared on


thewebthedatabasenecessaryforthepractice:Media
files such as pictures and movies for the record of

180

JournalofInformationTechnologyandApplicationinEducationVol.2Iss.4,Dec.2013www.jitae.org

marketing. Communication with weblog played


essential role in sharing knowledge with frequent
Q&Aexchangebetweenfarms.Especially,thesharing
ofinformationonthestrategyofassociationofplants
and the variety of harvest asynchrony in polyculture
helped beginnerspractice in distant region.As the
databaseisfortifiedwiththedevelopmentofpractice,
more farming options were accumulated, reaching
more than 300 variables playing roles in the
management(FIG.4).Such dynamic expansion of
managementknowledgeinevitablyrequireITsupport,
which in the future implies potentail application to a
widerrangeofenvironmentalcondition.

Greennodes:Plants,Rednodes:Insectes,Arrows:Interactionsbased
onliteratures
FIG.5EXAMPLEOFRECONSTRUCTEDECOLOGICAL
NETWORKBETWEENPLANTSANDINSECTSIN
SYNECOCULTUREFIELD

DatabasedrivenEnhancementofBiodiversity

Candidatesofmanagementvariables(nodes)andtheir
dependenciesindecisionmaking(links)aredepictedasanetwork.
FIG.EXAMPLEOFMANAGEMENTMODELKNOWLEDGE
STRUCTURE

With the collected database, we assessed and


reconstructed the ecological network of the field(FIG.
5). The reconstruction helped to understand the
functioningofeachecosystemagentinrelationtothe
others, so that to discover the positive effect of weed
andinsectsthatareneglectedinconventionalmethod.
This understanding lead to an increased knowledge
onsymbiotic relation between species, selective weed
control, vegetation needed for pest prevention, etc.
The biodiversity database attained about 20,000 field
pictures with about 1,000 species recorded in three
years (20102013). The IT supported recording of
biodiversity and farming knowledge promoted a
synergy between the practice, learning, and the
development of the farming method.The knowledge
construction coupled with the actual ecosystems
responsemaybefurtheracceleratedtoattainsufficient
speedneededfortheadaptationtoclimatechange.

FIG.6TOP:EXAMPLESOF27RHOPALOCERASPECIES
RECORDEDINSYNECOCULTUREFIELDS.BOTTOM:
PREDICTIONANDRESULTOFRHOPALOCERAVISITIN
SYNECOCULTUREFIELDS.POPULARITYRANKS(04)AND
PREDICTIONRATE(REDBAR)WEREDEFINEDUSINGLOCAL
ECOLOGICALRECORDSANDACTUALVEGETATIONDATA.
THERESULTS(BLUEANDGREENBARS)ARETHE
PERCENTAGEOFTHEACCURACYOFPREDICTIONINEACH
SUBSETOFFIELDS.

The marketing on weblog opened access to a wide


range of potential consumer all over Japan(average
5,000 access per day on http://ameblo.jp/muu8/), and
doubled the income per surface of an experimental
farmcomparedtotheadjuscentorganicpractice.

181

www.jitae.orgJournalofInformationTechnologyandApplicationinEducationVol.2Iss.4,Dec.2013

Synecoculture has various potential other than


producingfood.Thecontributiontolocalbiodiversity
isoneofthepositiveeffectthattheculturecanprovide.
The database and organization of pervasive learning
can encapsulate wider range of activity surrounding
agriculture, including ecological leveraging of local
environment. To further investigate the validity of IT
supported practice in ecosystems management, we
experimented the enhancement of biodiversity in
Rhopalocera species. An ensemble of literature on
local vegetation, historical Rhopalocera observation
records, information on the interaction between
species and actual vegetation data of the farms were
assembled on the database to give prediction on the
possibleRhopalocera visit during the year 2012.With
the use of database, we further introduced edible
plantstomaximallyattractRhopalocerawhosehabitats
are observed in the region. The results showed high
accuracy of predictionand effectiveness of vegetation
controlovertheinductionofinsectfauna(FIG.6).This
result suggests the validity of datadriven citizen
scienceframeworkontheenhancementofbiodiversity
inasystematicway.

attainsustainabilitygoals[Ehrlich2012].
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The author acknowledges Takashi Otsuka for the


development of Synecoculture concept, Hidemori Yazaki
and Kousaku Ohta for the database management. The
database was developed in collaboration with YUKAI
engeneering inc. Other citizenbased Synecoculture
practitionersinvaluablycontributedtothiswork.
REFERENCES

Bagla, P. & Stone, R. Science for all. Science340, 10321036


(2013).
Barnosky, A.D. et al. Approaching a state shift in Earths
biosphere,Nature486,5258(2012).
Ehrlich, P. R., Kareiva, P.M. & Daily, G.C. Securing natural
capital and expanding equity to rescale civilization.
Nature486,6873(2012).
Funabashi, M. Fondation de la Syncoculture: vers une
agriculture desynthse cologique et rentable,Actes du
colloque Transversalits de lAgriculture Biologique

Conclusions

(2011).
HLPE.Investinginsmallholderagricultureforfoodsecurity.

We developed an integrative framework for the


collective development of smallscale sustainable
agriculture with the use of database and webbased
communication tools. The emerged design converges
toavariationofpervasivelearning,includingmental,
physical, and virtual aspects of communication and
practice.Weinvestigatedthevalidityofthisapproach
in the actual management and development of
Synecoculturemethod,aswellastheenhancementof
biodiversity in local environment. The results were
shown effective in data acquisition, sharing,
assessment, knowledge discovery and propagation of
farming options based on the functioning of
biodiversityinthefield.

A report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food


Security and Nutrition. Committee on World Food
Security,Rome.(2013).
IAASTD. Agriculture at a Crossroads:Synthesis Report.
International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge,
ScienceandTechnologyforDevelopment(2009).
MillenniumEcosystemAssessment.EcosystemsandHuman
Wellbeing: Biodiversity Synthesis. World Resources
Institute,Washington,DC.(2005).
Zhang, F., Chen, X. & Vitousek, P. Chinese agriculture: an
experimentfortheworld.Nature497,3335(2013).

MasatoshiFunabashi

The IT based enhancement of small farmers with


environmental concern will further lead to a
generation of citizen science in ecosystems
management (http://unitwincs.org/), which is
expected tomediate the emergence of boundary
organizations important for the local governance to

2004: Bachelor in veterinary medical science, University of


Tokyo,Tokyo,Japan
2006:Master(EsScience),UniversityofTokyo,Tokyo,Japan
2010:Ph.Dinphysics,EcolePolytechnique,Paris,France

182

You might also like